If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable. – Louis D. Brandeis

I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not so desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. – Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1849

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. – Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do. – Edmund Burke, Second Speech on Conciliation, 1775